Let me tell you, it is humbling being in a country where they don't know your language very well. It is an interesting experience trying to order food when the people you are talking to don't know what you are trying to tell them, and you don't know what you are reading on the menu. By the way, in Germany, Menu doesn't mean menu, it means 'daily special'.
My day started off with Patrick waking me up accidentally by thinking I was already awake. He woke up at 4:00 am because of the jet lag and he woke me up at 7:00 because he was bored. We decided to get up and go to breakfast. We had tasty cereal that I can only explain as Honey Bunches of Oats that tasted like Grape Nuts and it had chocolate chips in it. It was yummy p: After our breakfast, we waited around watching soccer on the tv (which I assume was on for over 12 hours since it was on when I went to bed and was still on when I woke up this morning) and we got bored, so we decided to explore the city a bit. We headed back towards the cathedral and headed from there. We went down a street and found some really interesting stuff. One thing was a antique store that had really expensive stuff so we didn't stay in there long. We then found a really old looking wall and we followed it and found a neat little park with a statue and a giant concrete disembodied head, pictured above. We then headed back to the hostel to meet up with the group at 12:00. Once we all grouped up, we headed into the giant cathedral (Kolner Doms) and took lots of pictures. It was quite amazing considering the original cathedral was built before the 1300's. It was here that I ran into my first 'confrontation' with an expressful German man, who told me to take off my hat. He was relatively polite about it, and I'm glad he didn't yell at me. I like to point out here the difference between Germany and America, German custom is to generally remove one's hat when entering some buildings, and it seems to have been a lost custom in America. After exploring the inside of the cathedral, we went to the belfry in the right tower. Now, don't misunderstand me, it was quite excellent (except the batteries in my camera died when I got up there) but, I did have to climb 500 some odd steps (533 I think) up to the top. The view was amazing but my legs wanted to kill me. I'm glad I went, but I'm not so sure I would like to climb that spiral staircase ever again.
After the staircase of deadly legs, we left the cathedral and headed right next door to the Roman and German museum which was a museum that showed Cologne from when it was occupied by Rome. there was a special exhibit which was really nice except all the descriptions were in German and I couldn't read them. The other exhibits that were there had small blurbs in English and the were informational enough and had some really cool stuff like old swords and childrens toys as well as pottery and other stuff from the period.
When we were finished there, we headed out to find something to eat. We ended up finding this little restaurant that had some really excellent food. I got smoked pork and mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. All of it was delicious, but the mashed potatoes were exceptional. The sauerkraut was good, but different from what I am used to in America. This sauerkraut still tasted the same, but it wasn't as strong. the pork was delicious too, it tasted like salted ham a bit, but different. Quite delicious anyway. We broke into smaller groups and explored a small shopping area. It was kind of like an outdoor mall with some shops having no doors and curtains of heat blowing down at the entrance to keep out the intense cold. I even checked out a German GameStop. :D They have the same games we do, as well as a few that were completely German. After that we headed back up to the hostel and met up with everyone for our evening debriefing. After that some people headed off to explore some of the nightlife of Cologne. I stayed behind with some other people and explored the internet and started writing to you lovely people.
Before I leave you, let me leave you with a funny story about how people that can't communicate. When we got to a resting place on our way to the top of the belfry, a group of four German people were standing near us, and one walked over. He started talking to Dr. Ribble (in German) and she started talking back (in English).
"Yeah, yeah!" she said and handed him her camera. He looked slightly confused but we all grouped together and he took our picture. He handed back her camera and then one of his English speaking compatriots informed us that he was asking for a tissue. She then gave him a tissue.
Now, as I finish writing this, I am enjoying the company of Shannon, Patrick and a random British guy named Constantine. The wonder of hostels. Here's me enjoying another culture ;)
Houston Miller - J-term 2010 Participant